Anonymous

ANNOTATIONS

1. Reentry, Reentry Programs - According to the Department of Justice, over 650,00 formerly incarcerated individuals are released from prison for reentry into society every year in the United States. Challenges such as discrimination in the labor force and difficulty finding stable housing have lead to an extremely high recidivism rate in the US where almost one-half of released convicts reoffend. Reentry Programs are resource oriented organizations that seek to aid the reentry of ex-convicts through job training, support networking, and mental health treatment. They are often funded through a combination of state government sponsored grants, private donations, and community fundraising.

Transcript: “Through Austin, and the reentry program here and then Austin, kind of, set me up with some links and that’s pretty much how I got involved with that.”

Learn More: “Improving Upon Corrections in New Jersey to Reduce Recidivism and Promote a Successful Reintegration,” New Jersey Reentry Corporation.

Learn More [2]: Seena Fazel and Achim Wolf, “A Systematic Review of Criminal Recidivism Rates Worldwide: Current Difficulties and Recommendations for Best Practice,” PLOS ONE 10, no. 6 (June 18, 2015).

Learn More [3]: Lindsey Holman Holman, “Increase Funding for the Second Chance Act (SCA)to Support Local Reentry Programs That Reduce Recidivism among Formerly Incarcerated Individuals,” National Association of Counties, (February 20, 2020).

2. Pandemic, Unemployment - Of the 22.2 million jobs lost in the United States due to the Covid-19 pandemic, only around 14.2 million jobs have been recovered as of January 2021. The restaurant industry took the largest hit of any industry at the initial onset of the quarantine where the first wave of state-level restrictions in New Jersey eliminated all indoor dining options. The industry began to bounce back with the relaxing of restrictions in September of 2020 with Governor Murphy's Executive Order 158 which allowed indoor dining at 25% capacity. Outdooring dining has also been supported as an alternative to indoor dining through Executive Order 163.

Transcript: “It’s been different. I was out of work. I work in the restaurant industry, so we were impacted pretty hard. So, I mean, I’m back to work now, but I was out of work for that time. My wife was working at a preschool, as a director there. So, she’s been out of work and we have two kids. They’ve been out of school. So, we’ve all been home. Juggling life as it was over the past four months and kind of the quarantine. So, we’ve gone through a range of emotions between everybody but it’s definitely a different time than what we’re used to or was a different time.”

Learn More: “Health and Safety Standards for Indoor Dining Pursuant to Executive Order No. 183,” New Jersey Department of Health, (September 1, 2020).

Learn More [2]: Samantha Marcus, “N.J. Restaurants Could Open to Higher Capacity and Expand Outdoor Dining at No Cost under New Bills,” nj.com, January 14, 2021.

Learn More [3]: “Executive Order No. 163,” New Jersey Department of Health, (July 8, 2020).

Learn More [4]: Lucia Mutikani, “U.S. Economy Loses Jobs as COVID-19 Hammers Restaurants, Bars,” Reuters, January 8, 2021.

3. Housing Insecurity - While it is estimated that around 500,000 people in the United States suffer from homelessness, a much larger percentage of Americans suffer from housing insecurity. The 2020 US Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey revealed that 10.7% of respondents were unable to pay the previous month's rent on time. Studies have found that individuals who experience insecure housing situations, or bounced between homelessness and housing, suffer from poorer health outcomes and heightened levels of stress.

Transcript: “My relationship, I never necessarily have been a hundred percent homeless in that sense. Yes, there’s been times where I haven’t had my own apartment or my own place in my name or I’ve had to stay with other people. Or, I’ve bounced around, things of that nature.”

Learn More: Jane Callen, “New Household Pulse Survey Shows Concern Over Food Security, Loss of Income,” The United States Census Bureau, May 20, 2020.

Learn More [2]: Mandy Stahre et al., “Housing Insecurity and the Association with Health Outcomes and Unhealthy Behaviors, Washington State, 2011,” Preventing Chronic Disease 12 (July 9, 2015).

4. Affordable Housing Act, Subsidized Housing - Locally managed public housing agencies (PHAs) are federally funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development provide housing subsidies for low-income families and individuals who could not afford full rent otherwise. These subsidies come in the form of housing choice vouchers (HCVs) that subsidize rent for families whose income does not exceed 50% of the median income for that area. While these programs help the reentry process. waitlists for HCVs vary based on area and available housing with some wait times lasting years.

Transcript: “[The reentry program] helped me find housing under the affordable housing and it’s been kind of really helpful, to kind of get through all this because the strain on me I guess, is not as much it would be if I was, had a normal lease or if I was renting normally and having to pay the full amount.”

Learn More: “Housing Choice Voucher Program Section 8,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Learn More [2]: Margaret diZerega, “Public Housing for People with Criminal Histories,” Vera Institute of Justice, September 2015.

TRANSCRIPT

Interview conducted by Cara Del Gaudio

Conducted Remotely

July 21, 2020

Transcription by Rutgers Oral History Archive

0:00

So, we’re recording, alright.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks.

Hi.

Hello.

How are you?

I’m well, how are you?

Good, thank you. I’m Cara. I’m a history major at Rutgers. I’m going into my senior year. Thank you for your interest in this project. Do you understand the project goals and everything or have any questions about that?

Yes, I understand, no questions. 

You’ve gone through the consent form and everything?  Do you have any questions about that?

No.  

Okay. So, just so I know what aspects of your identity are you comfortable sharing. We have your name. So, I guess we won’t go with anonymous type questions. Okay, so I guess it’s already recording but I’ll say, this interview with [REDACTED] is being recorded on July 21st in Highland Park. Thank you for speaking with me today. I have some questions to get the conversation going, but you can feel free to share anything you like and also, if any of the questions are not something you want to share, that’s fine too because it’s your story.

Okay.

Roughly, how old are you?

Thirty-six.

Okay. So, you’re reentry, right?

Yes.

Yes. Are you from New Jersey?

Yes.

Where were you born?

I was born in New Brunswick at what is now Robert Wood.  

Where are you currently living?

I live right here in Highland Park.

2:07

How did you become involved with the project?

Which project, the reentry?  

Well, I guess the collaboration of organizations that are working on the Shelter Project, so I guess if you’re through reentry, then yes, how did you become involved with that?

Through Austin, and the reentry program here and then Austin, kind of, set me up with some links and that’s pretty much how I got involved with that. 

[Annotation 1}

[Editor’s Note: The specific reentry program that the narrator participated in, and refers to in this interview, is NeighborCorps Reentry Services, which was started in 2014 and operates within Middlesex county. The program is partnered with Middlesex County Jail and focuses on assisting released prisoners by pairing them with a mentorship team that provides resources for employment, housing, education, and guidance. Ex-convicts who have worked with the mentorship program are found to be 39% less likely to be re-incarcerated and twice as likely to find steady employment. See: NeighborCorps Reentry Services, Bread for the World, and Improving NJ]

[Editor’s Note: The NeighborCorps program is managed by Churches Improving Communities (CIC), a nonprofit community development corporation that provides a variety of community and social justice services to local New Jersey communities. The CIC nonprofit was organized in 2012 to pool the resources of twenty-nine different churches in Central Jersey, and its 501(c)(3) non-profit designation allows them to receive funding from both private and public sources while being tax-exempt. See: Improving NJ, NACEDA]

So, what has your experience been like over the past few months with the pandemic?

It’s been different. I was out of work. I work in the restaurant industry, so we were impacted pretty hard. So, I mean, I’m back to work now, but I was out of work for that time. My wife was working at a preschool, as a director there. So, she’s been out of work and we have two kids. They’ve been out of school. So, we’ve all been home. Juggling life as it was over the past four months and kind of the quarantine. So, we’ve gone through a range of emotions between everybody but it’s definitely a different time than what we’re used to or was a different time.  

[Annotation 2]

Yes, how old are your kids?

Ten and five.

How do you think they’ve been handling being home so much and things like that?

I think they’ve handled it pretty well.

Good.  

My daughter being a little bit older would like to get out a little bit more, be around some of her friends and things of that nature, but she handles it pretty well.  My son, I mean, he’s younger, so he doesn’t really have that many solid friends right now but the friends he does have, he’s been doing the Zoom meetings with and things like that. He’s happy being home, playing with his toys and not having to go to school.  

Yes.

So, that’s where he’s at right now. So, I mean, they handled it pretty well. They handled it very well actually.  

4:53

Do you know anyone whose had COVID in your family or anything?

My direct family, no.

That’s good.

I have had friends who passed away from COVID.

I’m sorry.

And that have had it and recovered, yes.

I guess, continuing in the COVID avenue. How did the prison try to prepare for COVID before you were released? 

I’m sorry, say again?

How did the prison try to prepare for COVID before you were released?

Released from where?  

I’m sorry, I thought reentry referred to reentry after prison.

It does, but I was already home.

Okay.  

So yes.

Sorry if this is a little unprepared.  

It’s okay.

I only found out we were doing this interview five minutes ago, so.

I know you got thrown in, it’s alright.

Would you be able to tell me about how long you’ve been home and how that’s?

Yes, been home since April of last year.

Okay.

Yes.

6:15

Alright, thank you. So, I guess in a separate turn then, what is your relationship to housing stability and have you ever experienced houselessness? 

My relationship, I never necessarily have been a hundred percent homeless in that sense. Yes, there’s been times where I haven’t had my own apartment or my own place in my name or I’ve had to stay with other people. Or, I’ve bounced around, things of that nature, but in terms of this, in terms of the reentry program and what I’ve done now. They helped me find housing under the affordable housing and it’s been kind of really helpful, to kind of get through all this because the strain on me I guess, is not as much it would be if I was, had a normal lease or if I was renting normally and having to pay the full amount. So, this has kind of helped out a little bit. So, I’ve been on this, we’re getting ready to renew our lease in August as we go into our second year. So, I mean, it’s been helpful. We’ve been able to stash away a little bit of money, a good deal of money, with hopes of using this as a spring board into buying our home, so.  

[Annotation 3]

[Annotation 4}

Great. I’m just looking at my questions.

Yes, no problem. Take your time.  

8:17

What are some hopes for the future that you have and for your family and more generally?  

I’m pretty content with where I’m at and with what I’m doing right now. Like I said, you mentioned the home. That will probably be one of the next big things. Most things relating around my kids right now, making sure that they’re continuing their education, stay at home learning and then I’m providing them with everything that they need. I’m a big runner. I’m a competitive runner for a professional track club. So, I’m doing a lot of training right now and actually, that’s probably been the biggest benefit for me through this COVID experience over the past four or five months is that I’ve really been able to elevate to a different level of training that I probably haven’t had since I was in college and, with everything being pushed back, it’s really helped with training and that, so. There’s really not much.  Like I said, the home, my job. I’m currently a restaurant manager right now for [REDACTED] and just to continue to climb the ladder in that hierarchy and that’s really it.

Good. What other hobbies do you have that you’ve been able to have during this home time?

Like I said, the running, I run eighty to a hundred miles a week.

Wow.  

And that includes workouts on the track and things like that. I’m a big sports guy. So, therefore, I guess, my family is now a big sports.  My son’s really into baseball, so we practice baseball every day. Actually, they just started camp this week. So, he’s in baseball camp right now. I mean, that’s it. I play a lot with the kids. Like, I run. We do sports and play a little PlayStation, video games. I read quite often.  That’s also been a really big blessing. A lot of time to be able to do those types of things that I hadn’t necessarily had time for when I was back and forth from work and dealing with kids. Meditating. Just a lot more taking care of myself because I have the time to now.  

11:03

That’s great.  Do you have any faith based or spiritual practices that you ascribe to?  

No, I’m very educated in many different religions and I was raised in– I’m not going to mention the religions, but I’ve been a part of several different ones. So, I don’t affiliate with any one religion or sect but I’m more just spiritual based and believing that there’s some type of higher energy in the universe and things like that. So, I take what information I believe pertains to me and regardless of where it’s from and I use it just to kind of live a moral life. I think, ultimately, everybody knows what’s right and wrong, and you don’t really need necessarily one religion to tell you that. So, I’m just going to try to live as a good person and be a good person.  

Yes. I guess one of the last questions that I have is how do you get your news about the virus and current events?

How do you not get it in this day and age with social media?

Yes.

I’m not one that goes looking for it really, necessarily, but I do like to stay up to date. So, I may read The New York Times or I may watch an hour of the news whether I’m a liberal, so I’m Democratic, so I watch things that pertain kind of more to that. So– but mostly, like I said, I’ll watch about an hour a day and I’ll read some of The New York Times, excuse me, on my phone and things of that. So, that’s pretty much it. 

Sorry these are a little out of order.

It’s okay.

13:26

I don’t have any further questions but if there are any stories that you would like to tell or anything like that, I will definitely would be open to hearing them.  

I don’t think I have any.

Kind of very open ended but.

No, that’s cool. Yes, I mean, I don’t really have anything. I apologize.  

Well, thank you so much for meeting with me.

Thank you.  

Have a great day and good luck with everything.

Yes, you as well. 

And stay healthy.

I went to Rutgers as well, so have fun with that.

Thank you.

And alright, I’ll see you.

Bye.  

I’ll stop this recording and you’re all set.

Do you need anything else from me?

I don’t.